PHILADELPHIA — Around a screen, in transition, tracking him through the lane … it made no difference.

No matter where Michael Carter-Williams went, it seemed like Tony Parker already was two steps ahead of him. That’s the 31-year-old Parker whose offseason was shortened by a postseason run into June. And unable to chase him down was Carter-Williams, a guy 10 years his junior.

Part of Carter-Williams’ ascension from 76ers rookie to respected NBA point guard will be measured by his ability to hamper guys like Parker, the all-everything San Antonio guard. Monday night, that didn’t exactly work out how Carter-Williams had expected.

“They make a lot of people look flat,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said.

The Sixers bowed to San Antonio, 109-85, in a laugher of a showing at Wells Fargo Center.

One day, if the Sixers play their cards right, and if Brown builds a team in the same vein as his mentor, they’ll resemble what Gregg Popovich has assembled in San Antonio. For now, the teams could not have looked more different.

“That’s the Spurs and that’s what we aspire to get to,” said Brown, facing a team with which he’s quite familiar. “What you saw was the extremes of a team that’s been together and moved the ball and shared the ball and played freely, versus the team that got static and stagnant and tried to do it individually and really had no rhythm to what we were doing offensively.

“It spills over into many facets of the game when the ball sticks and people don’t get touches. It’s deflating. And then you go back to the other end and you have to chase them around. It’s ping-pong. They’re finding people and they make the right pass and they can shoot. It’s what we aspire to get to. That’s what you saw.”

Unfortunately for Brown, he was unable to get the victory against Popovich, for whom he served 11 seasons as an assistant and player development coach in San Antonio. The two exchanged handshakes and well wishes before the game in what had to be a touching moment for Brown, the rookie coach.

Carter-Williams’ season is bound to have some ragged edges. His play against the Spurs was one of them. He went 2-for-11 from the field, including 0-for-2 from long range, for eight points. He filled out the rest of the stat sheet with four assists, three blocks, three steals and two rebounds.

The other side of the coin was Parker, who went 7-for-12 with 14 points and nine assists. Not a good showing defensively for Carter-Williams, who had to check off Parker in favor of defending outside shooter Patty Mills in the later quarters

The game’s warm-and-fuzzy vibe created by Brown and Popovich was cast aside midway through the first quarter. That’s when the Sixers’ turnover-prone play took hold. A pair of miscues in the backcourt — on consecutive possessions, no less — led to two easy baskets by San Antonio in a span of 30 seconds. They also triggered some boos from the home crowd, which was witnessing a 31-13 deficit after one quarter.

San Antonio had 29 assists on 44 buckets, a ridiculous percentage, but not unheard of considering how fluidly the Spurs move the ball. All but one of their 12 players who got into the game made a shot, which means 13 players touched the ball while San Antonio was limited to only 12 turnovers.

“Offensively, when you talk about efficiency, they’re the model,” said the Sixers’ Spencer Hawes, who had 17 points and 13 rebounds. “You take away one thing and they have another way to beat you. They have such good chemistry with one another. Even without Timmy (Duncan), they slide another guy in there and the machine keeps running.”

That machine went through Parker, who did plenty of damage in only 29 minutes. At the very least, having to guard Parker (or, more appropriately, chase him around) gave Carter-Williams a front-row ticket to being an efficient point guard in the NBA.

It’s a lesson he can learn without having to go back and view it on the DVR.

“(Parker) runs his team extremely well and I hope to run my team like that and know my teammates like he knows his one day,” said Carter-Williams. “He knows where all of them are on the floor at all times, knows where they’re supposed to be, knows where they like to shoot. I hope, one day, to be on a team and have a team like that.”

One day, he might. Monday — with a game between one team careening into tanking territory, and the other angling for another trip to the NBA Finals — was not that day.